At the meeting, representatives of the Government and the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines presented the damages and the impact of Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.

The World Food Programme’s head of office in Tacloban and the coordinator of the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster (FSAC) - set in response to the devastating impact of the typhoon- reported about the progress made from immediate relief to early recovery stage.

Representatives from Oxfam, Save the Children and the International Labour Organization (ILO) also took part on the event and acknowledged the great joint collaboration carried out with the Government of the Philippines.

“A special thanks to farmers whose energy and spirit has made the recovery this successful,” Graziano da Silva underlined in his closing remarks.

Speaking about the joint slogan “Planting the seeds of recovery,” the FAO chief highlighted that it “sums up what our response means to farmers.”

“Our immediate goal to secure the rice planting season after the typhoon has been a success. Our rice seed response is just the start,” the FAO Chief underlined.

Graziano da Silva thanked Secretary Alcalá and the Department of Agriculture for their collaboration as well as the Governments of Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and the UK for their critical support.

“It is amazing to see how we are all working together in this difficult, challenging and unexpected situation to support farmers,” Graziano da Silva concluded.